The History of Forensics

  • Invention of the microscope

    Invention of the microscope
    Zacharias Janssen is the maker of the first microscope, though the inventor isn't known.
  • Physical evidence used in a case

  • Fingerprint analysis

    Fingerprint analysis
    Fingerprint analysis becomes a forensic technique
  • First forensic curriculum in Switzerland

    First forensic curriculum in Switzerland
    The first forensic academic curriculum was taught in Switzerland, founded by Archibald Reiss.
  • FBI is formed

    FBI is formed
  • World's first crime lab by Edmond Locard in paris

    World's first crime lab by Edmond Locard in paris
  • Edmond Locard

    Edmond Locard
    French criminologist, born 1877. Known for the first crime lab, Locard's exchange principle, and known as the Sherlock Holmes of France. Every contact leaves a trace
  • John Larson invented the Polygraph

    John Larson invented the Polygraph
  • America first crime lab in Los Angeles

    America first crime lab in Los Angeles
  • Edgar Hoover

    Edgar Hoover
    American Attorney and law enforcement administrator born in 1895. Established a fingerprint file, which became the world's largest. Created a scientific crime-detection laboratory.
  • Lie detection significantly known

  • Leone Lattes

    Leone Lattes
    An Italian scientist born in 1887. Developed a procedure for dry blood stain type: Forensic Paternity, which is the identification of a corpse based on blood from relatives.
  • Voice recording used as evidence

    Voice recording used as evidence
  • William M. Bass

    William M. Bass
    An American forensic anthropologist born in 1928. Creator of the "Body Farm" or the Anthropology Research Facility, the world's first laboratory for decomposition research. One of his graduate students produced a groundbreaking study on how insects respond to dead bodies.
  • Colin Pitchfork Case

    Colin Pitchfork Case
    Jailed for life in 1988 for raping and strangling two 15 year old girls, Lynd Mann and Dawn Ashworth, in Leicestershire 1983 and 1986. The first murderer convicted using DNA evidence. Found through genetic dragnet gave himself away when he asked a friend for a substitute blood sample. Within a year, genetic fingerprinting made the unique molecular structures of victims and suspects visible worldwide.